Online PR News – 03-November-2011 –Thirty Santa Barbara Marathon runners from around the country collectively raised over $43,000 for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (GSF), a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the #1 genetic killer of young children, and accelerating research focused on a cure.

The thirty “Team GSF” runners will congregate in Santa Barbara to participate in the Santa Barbara International Marathon on November 12, 2011. Team members hail from California to New York and include GSF co-founder and father to Gwendolyn, Bill Strong, other SMA parents, families, and friends, and individuals moved by GSF’s efforts and the SMA cause. Beyond funding for SMA, Team GSF has also raised much needed awareness of SMA, its shocking statistics, its brutal progression, and its dire prognosis.

“To say we’re humbled by what the thirty inspiring Team GSF Santa Barbara Marathon runners have accomplished would be an enormous understatement,” said Bill Strong, GSF co-founder. “There is something unbelievably powerful about a group of individuals coming together to challenge and push their physical strength to the limits to help conquer a disease that robs children of theirs. We’ve all committed to running because we can and we’re running so one day those with SMA can too.”